Sora Kurusu, The First Artificier

"This is the last time I am to take care of your irresponsibility, Master Sora..."

A moderately-sized wolf girl, or an Okami in japanese as far as I've studied Kanji, chided infront of me as she shovels into my mouth a spoonful of savory meat. Sitting right next to me as I lay bed-ridden on a wooven matress sitting on the stone floor. She payed no attention to the dress being damaged by the dust she sat on, as she is very displeased by my act of trying to swing a sword.

"Had you have a close-combat oriented class, perhas maybe you'd have stood a chance. But no, you already knew you were a mage anyways and decided to put yourself in immenent danger! You know how much stamina and mana it takes to forge that sword, so why on the entirety of Avaloria would you even risk yourself to check if your sword swings the right way?!"

'The master being scolded by the servant? I could only imagine what Feru and Arthur could be thinking right now if they were eaves dropping...' I thought. And just as I feared, I heard the snickering of wolverine origins coming from behind our room door.

"I heard that, Feru..." I said, trying to either provoke him to burst in or leave. The latter being more beneficial, and just like that, the shuffling of paws confirmed my thought that he has adhered to the second probability. The slave girl looked at me once more.

"Please sir, I know what this work means to you. But please be more careful of your own welfare, even I have my own limits as your slave..." she spoke calmly. She stood up to leave and took a small bow, before turning towards the door. However...

"Wait..."

I took hold of her skirt. And she looked back, her face turning slightly red "S-sir, what are you-" I released my hold and cleared my throat, and then, I finally said: "There are some things that I've been meaning to ask you..." She then wipes her expression off her face, and she then takes a seat on the ground, and then replies: "A-ah yes, I was already expecting this. I guess I can't leave you to wonder..." We then began our discussion.

"Ah, so you are wondering why I'm blocking you out of my mind" She said "Simple, I do not wish for you to pry in my previous life, Master..." she took a small bow, and then resumed her sitting form. 'Previous life?' I thought, and just like that her scowl narrowed even further. And there I realized it was futile to dig any further, but rather I asked: "Can you open your mind to me a little bit?" I asked, which she instantly replied with: "No". As suspected, she mustn't be easily trusting to be able to open her mind a little bit towards me.

But of course, although she is slightly m.a.t.u.r.e, her response from earlier already gave away one weakness all girls have, even slave girls. I moved in a bit closer, with my head perching outwards. "What are you doing?" I then sighed "Would you at least open a little bit of your mind to me? It's kind of anxious to think about what you're planning to do..." I kept a straight face whilst saying that, knowing full well of her capability to read into my mind.

She tried to ignore me, but we both knew that she couldn't resist forever, I haven't even resorted to using the [Slave seal] engraved on her just yet, least she think of me as a coward who relies much on cheap tactics. "If I don't know what you're thinking, I might assume you are planning some sort of ploy with Arthur and Feru to help them release you, and leave me to die by either their hands or another's..." I said, she then hesitantly tried to retort but she paused, I didn't loosen my train of thought. After all, the way she's trying to play around with me and my position to her's, It's definitely one of the many strategies I've used in my debates back in my previous world.

"Please, I don't know much about this world. And you're probably the closest I have to information in this world via your memories..." I plead to her, and I hope that she is willing to open up. She kept a stoic expression, staring deep into my eyes with her light green ones. The stoic expression was broken with an angry one, deliberately showing me a scowl. But then she reached for my hands with hers, and then said: "Do you really trust me that much?"

I nod in agreement, and all of a sudden something began to enter from the back of my, the sound of a lock cl.i.c.k.i.n.g open, and the creak of hinges. Finally, the door to her mind has opened up.

A flood of memories swept through Sora's conciousness, there were memories of her in the midst of silhouettes of people with strange animal-like appearances, and the girl, he knows today, was wearing a beautiful pelt that looked like it belonged to a great dire wolf and great adorned with bright shells, tiny bits of gold and bones. But the thing that made her stand-out from the crowd amongst her, was the warm smile she wore. Which felt strange to Sora, as some of the crowd wore the same pleasant face, yet no warm feelings eminated from them.

Then, there were memories of her being tortured, her hands tied upwards and several marks, that don't belong to any torture weapon in the chamber, on her exposed c.h.e.s.t and lower half were brightly colored out by the purple taint of bruises. A small pool of blood gathered beneath her, her eyes lightly flew with tears, a soft sob that echoed through Sora's mind like a wail of a Deep-sea creature.

He had no idea what to feel, or even what to think, a mild and soft spot for the joy he found looking at a child who smiled with joy, or the ever amounting sea of rage after seeing her getting tortured and violated. Sora now understood what was going on with her. He knows, because...

He was once in her shoes...